Foxconn has once again raised employee wages in an effort to improve working conditions and help recruit workers at a factory in Zhengzhou, Henan province of China. Furthermore, the company has reduced the probation period for entry-level works from six months to just three months.
Production line workers will receive a 16 percent pay increase which equates to 1,800 yuan ($283.10), up from the previous 1,550 yuan ($243.78), excluding overtime wages. Furthermore, all production line employees will receive an additional 200 yuan ($31.46) bonus during the busy season from August through November, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Foxconn working conditions had been in question for years but it wasn’t until a string of employee suicides in Shenzen in 2010 and a deadly explosion at the Chengdu plant last year that many began to take notice. Four workers were killed in the 2011 blast.
Foxconn is perhaps most well known as the company that manufacturers the iPhone and iPad. Apple CEO Tim Cook toured a Foxconn manufacturing plant in March and two months later, Cupertino volunteered to share the initial cost of improving working conditions at multiple factories in China.
Since then, the Fair Labor Association has confirmed that nearly 80 percent of the actions they suggested in their initial assessment have now been completed. Interestingly enough, that same initial finding suggested that plant conditions were above average and the major concern for employees was boredom and alienation.
